Girado, Justine Carl

The key ethical standard discussed here is about the ethical standard of multiple relationships,
bases for assessments, and competence as a psychologist. Let us start by discussing why multiple
relationships are one of the most crucial in this trial and questioning the psychologist Dr.
Shannon Curry. The ethical standards for multiple relationships state that a psychologist with a
professional role with a client and at the same time has another form of relationship or role with
the same person or in a relationship with someone closely associated with the client that the
psychologist is treating cannot enter the professional relationship. They must be bound by
professional interactions only when they see each other during sessions, this gives a good point
to add about maintaining competence, it is stated in the American Psychological Association that
Psychologists must undertake efforts to establish, develop, and maintain competence. There is
also the deviance from informed consent. Another part would be the bases of assessment which
states that psychologists can provide opinions of any psychological characteristics of a client or
individual for that matter, only if they have conducted a proper examination of the individuals
adequate to support the conclusions. In this part of the paper, I shall discuss where these ethical
standards were not upheld by the psychologist in the trial. First would be the multiple
relationships in the video it has been shown that the psychologist openly admitted that she spent
hours with Mr. John Christopher Depp II that was closely related to a client which is Mr. Depp’s
wife Ms. Amber Laura Heard that she has an active professional relationship with, as we recall
this breaks the ethical standard because a psychologist cannot have any interactions that are not
related to the treatment. But in the trial, the psychologist admitted that she spent almost 4 hours
with Mr. John Christopher Depp II. For the second ethical standard, it would be the bases of
assessment, there is a part where the psychologist deemed Ms. Rocky Pennington as unstable as
her client Ms. Heard. She cannot make these types of claims, assessments, or evaluations without
proper decorum, as stated in American Psychological Association (n.d.), a psychologist can only
do this if they have conducted a professional examination, this has hurt the psychologist’s
credibility because of the incompetent words that are unprofessional to her 15-year practice, she
was asked by the lawyer that would it have changed if Ms. Heard just responded and she quickly
blamed it on the dynamic of Ms. Pennington which the lawyer followed up by asking her if she
has any real basis on this. I can say that this hurts the psychologist’s credibility because of giving
claims and evaluations out of nowhere, knowing that she must be competent in where she must
give out her opinions about behavior because after all, she is a professional forensic
psychologist. This should lead us to the final ethical standard the psychologist should have kept
in mind her boundaries of competence, there is this one scene where she denies and says she is
not a lawyer to not know these things, in fact she has been practicing for 15 years. Clearly, she
has ethics and is competent of what she can and cannot do. As stated by the American
Psychological Association (2010), when she assumed the role, the psychologist should have
reasonable knowledge and familiarity of the administrative and judicial laws and rules they are
governed by in their profession.
Reference:

Daniel, J. H. (2010). The APA Code of Ethics: Alive and Applied. PsycCRITIQUES, 55(30).

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020483